Ashland is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the MetroWest region. The population was 14,674 at the 2000 census.
The area now known as Ashland was settled in the early 1700s and inhabited prior to that by the Megunko Indians, to which Megunko Hill owes its name. Previously known as "Unionville", Ashland was incorporated in 1846, bearing the name of statesman Henry Clay's Kentucky estate, and is considerably younger than many of the surrounding towns. The establishment of the Boston to Albany railroad in the mid-1800s was key in the early development of Ashland, although it remained a mainly centralized residential town with limited industry until the mid 20th century.
Local inventor Henry E. Warren developed the Warren Synchronizing Timer in 1916, which made synchronous electric clocks possible by keeping alternating current flowing from power plants at a consistent sixty cycles per second. Warren founded Telechron, which, in partnership with General Electric, manufactured electric clocks in Ashland until 1979. A Warren Synchronizing Timer is on display at the Smithsonian's Museum of American History in Washington D.C, while the high school sports teams have been coined "The Clockers." Also of note was the construction of the Ashland Reservoir around 1900, from the waters of Cold Spring. This is the current site of Ashland State Park.
For most of the 20th century, Ashland's population remained slow in growth, until the post-war boom beginning in the 1950s. Ashland grew from a far-removed rural town 22 miles west of Boston to a primarily residential suburb by the 1980s. Many farms and open spaces have given way to housing, although some untouched land still remains, including the Ashland Town Forest, Ashland State Park, and land comprising the beach and dam portions of Hopkinton State Park.
Two major routes, 135 and 126, pass through Ashland. Route 135 is dominated by older residential development of varying density and is also part of the route for the Boston Marathon, which began in Ashland on Pleasant Street until the start was moved to Hopkinton's Main Street in 1924. Route 126 has developed rapidly since the 1980s, as farms have given way to shopping centers and condominiums. Part of the draw of Ashland, and one that has been publicized in recent years, is its "ideal" location about halfway between the cities of Boston and Worcester. Ashland is considered part of MetroWest, which also consists of the towns of Framingham, Holliston, and Hopkinton.
Even though the current Ashland has left its humble roots as a rural area, it still retains the look and feel of a typical residential Boston-area New England town. Traditions like the Ashland Day fair and small-town favorites like the ice cream shop Tasty Treat and breakfast joint Sunnyside Cafe maintain the feeling of a close-knit community. Even so, it is not without a McDonald's and a significant number of pizza establishments. Ashland's traditional rival for the Thanksgiving Day football game is Hopkinton
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